Optical disc players (e.g., DVD, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, etc.) can provide a number of functions including playing movies stored on optical discs. Optical disc players have largely replaced magnetic tape players as a source of home entertainment video playback. Such players may continue to grow in popularity as prices decrease. However, decreasing prices may increase pressures on reducing the cost of manufacturing the optical disc players themselves.
Some optical disc players include device memory associated therewith. The device memory can include non-volatile memory, for example, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). The device memory can store instructions (e.g., firmware) for providing device-level functionality to the optical disc player. Instructions stored in the device memory can be altered to provide for new device-level functionality (e.g., features) not supported by a prior version of the instructions stored in the device memory.
The instructions stored in the device memory may be provided by the optical disc player manufacturer. When new device-level functionality is desired for a particular model of optical disc player, the manufacturer may incur the costs of developing altered instructions for the device memory including, in some instances, writing and testing the instructions for a number of different models of optical disc players. That is, different manufacturers may have different versions of the instructions stored in device memory to provide device-level functionality, even where the device-level functionality is the same between different manufacturers (e.g., the functionality of playing a Blu-ray disc).